Locust Apacolypse
by RC117
Summary: 17 years after the events of Halo 3, an army of Jiralhanae invade the human world of Sera and awaken a threat known as Locusts, setting off a war between UNSC/Sangheili Empire forces and the Brute/Locusts armies
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Shadows of War

Sanghelios, 2569

The room was dark. The only light came from his twin energy swords. There was nothing in the room either. It was empty. At least, it seemed to be empty. The Arbiter knew that he was not alone. He then glimpsed movement in one corner of the room. His eyes locked on to what he knew to be another Sangheili. A burst of blue plasma spewed from that corner of the room. The Arbiter leapt. He grabbed at what appeared to be empty air, looking for something to hold on to. He found what he was looking for. He allowed himself a smile, knowing that he had won.

"Lights!" He commanded. The room was instantly flooded with blue light. The training exercise was over.

"As always, Thel, you are a worthy opponent. But training with you is not the only reason I came here." The elite ranger, Rikar Vadam said.

"Speak, then." The Arbiter replied

"My lord, the distant outposts of the Sangheilian Empire are under attack by the Jiralhanae."

"So. The bastards have decided to rekindle our old war. They are fools for thin king that they can win. Ready my fleet. We leave as soon as our armies are assembled."

"Yes, my lord." Rikar replied.

Once his friend had left, Thel let out a deep sigh. He had hoped that the Jiralhanae would not decide to attack again. The empire had thrived for nearly 20 years after the end of the human/Covenant war. But now, the shadow of war would once again fall across the galaxy. Inevitably, the Kig-Yar were already a part of this war. The Unngoy would be drawn in, as many of them had found sanctuary in the empire after the destruction of their home world by the Jiralhanae 7 years ago. And as for the humans…there had been little contact with them since the joint effort to find the Arbiter's friend John Spartam-117. But it was inevitable that they would be drawn in. Just when peace had begun to settle in, the Jiralhanae had attacked. Oh well, he thought to himself. He'd secretly been aching for a real fight ever since the battle for the Unggoy home world. And now, the Sangheilis would burn the inferior bastards. They would kill every single one of them.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Counterattack

Two weeks after the events of chapter 1…

Aboard his flagship _Honorable Sacrifice _the Arbiter surveyed his great fleet of battle cruisers. Each ship was loaded with battalions of elite Sangheili warriors, Ghosts, Wraith tanks, and weaponry. It had taken longer than expected for his fleet to be prepared for the Empire's savage counterattack. Sangheili warriors located on the fringes of the Empire's space were holding out against the Jiralhanae attacks with ease. The Sangheili warriors were superior in nearly every way. And if Thel's plan went off as it should, then the Jiralhanae would be caught between two forces of Sangheili warriors.

"Arbiter, we are preparing for our slip space jump!" one of the bridge officers exclaimed.

"Good. Fire slip space capacitors. Prepare all warriors for battle!" The Arbiter replied.

The fleet began jumping to slip space one by one. Finally, only the _Honorable Sacrifice _and the _Bloody Death _remained. The two cruisers jumped simultaneously. Normally, the flagship would jump last. But for this mission, the _Bloody Death _was considered just as important to the mission, and needed to be defended at all costs. It was carrying a surprise for the Jiralhanae. The Arbiter grinned, and settled into his command chair for the journey.

3 hours later, in orbit over Sangheili colony world of Sera

When the _Honorable Sacrifice _and the _Bloody Death _returned from slipstream space, the battle was already underway and raging around them. Space was not as pitch black and empty as it should be. Destroyed hulls of both Sangheili and Jiralhanae cruisers were scattered through space, and plasma bolts shot through space. Teardrop-like Seraph fighters buzzed around, engaging each other in dogfights.

"Prepare the drop ships!" The Arbiter ordered. "And ready my men."

"Yes sir!" one of his subordinates replied.

Thel raced to the hangar bay. Five phantom drop ships filled the hangar, and his warriors were everywhere. The dock officer saw him enter.

"Officer on deck!" he yelled. All of the warriors stopped what they were doing and came to attention.

"Warriors of the Sangheili Empire!" The Arbiter yelled "Our enemies, the Jiralhanae have begun a war with us! But their war shall be short! Today, we end the lives of these mongrel asswipes!"

A cheer rose up throughout the hangar.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Counterattack, pt.2

Five Phantom drop ships dropped into Sera's atmosphere. Anti-Aircraft batteries locate on the ground opened fire on the drop ships.

"Sir!" The pilot yelled form the cockpit "We can't get to ground without getting shredded by those AA turrets!"

"Then we don't land!" The Arbiter shouted back "We jump! Ready the jetpacks!" Jetpacks were not commonly used by Sangheili warriors. They were mostly used by the UNSC forces. But ever since the human/Covenant war had ended, jetpacks had been found in many Sangheili armories. The Arbiter and his squad of Sangheili warriors quickly strapped the jetpacks on.

"Are you ready?" The Arbiter roared to the warriors.

"Yes sir!" They replied.

"Good." Said the Arbiter. "Fight with honor!" He then jumped out of the dropship. He fired a burst from his jet pack to slow his descent. He reached the ground with ease, along with all of his warriors. "Let's move!" He growled. He drew both energy swords and began running, gradually building up to a full sprint. A group of about three dozen Jiralhanae stood in his way. Thel stopped, as did his warriors. There were 20 Sangheili warriors; all armed with plasma rifles, plasma pistols, energy swords, and plasma grenades. About half of the Jiralhanae had jet packs and were armed with spikers and spike grenades. Two golden clad brutes were armed with spikers, fuel rod cannons, spike grenades, and firebomb grenades. The remaining blue clad brutes were armed with all armed with either spikers or brute shots. All had spike grenades. Thel growled a challenge. The Jiralhanae opened fire. Thel and his warriors leapt to all sides. Rikar primed and threw a plasma grenade into the midst of the Jiralhanae warriors. Two of them were blown to pieces, and three others were knocked to the side. Those three instantly had Sangheili warriors upon them, pumping them full of plasma rifle shots. Thel leapt into the air at one of the Jiralhanae equipped with a jetpack. He pushed both of his energy swords deep into the imbecile. The Arbiter used his body as a leaping point and jumped to the ground, slashing two Jiralhanae out of the air as he came. One of his warriors was being overwhelmed by two Jiralhanae. He deactivated his energy swords and drew his plasma rifle. Two bursts of plasma later, both Jiralhanae were dead. Then one of the golden clad brutes leapt at him. Thel rolled to the side.

"Your species will not survive this!" The Jiralhanae roared.

"No. Yours is the one that shall not survive!" The Arbiter roared as he leapt into the air, switching back to his energy swords. He pushed both swords into the skull of the Jiralhanae. The last remaining brute was taken down by plasma shots from Rikar.

"Good job, Thel." He said.

"Thank you. You fought with great honor." The Arbiter responded.

"But this is only the beginning." A third Sangheili warrior said.

"Yes. The beginning of the end of one of our species." The Arbiter said.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4-Couterattack pt.3

"Rikar! Come over here!" Thel shouted. He was looking at a holo projection of the brutes hastily built bases. Rikar sprinted over. "What is it Thel?" he asked.

"We have discovered a Jiralahae mining facility. How they managed to set it up so quickly, we don't know. However, all their vehicles require the irons in our soil to be built. Destroying this would be of great use to us. We leave in ten minutes. A phantom is already prepared."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Rikar asked. "Let's go kill some brutes!"

The phantom flight was short. Escorted by banshees, they easily managed to destroy any of the brutes primitive fliers, which were called basilisks, that got in their way. The phantom dropped off Thel, Rikar, and their strike team of elites not too far from the mining facility, but not too close either. This mission was supposed to be one of stealth, not force. All five of the elites, upon landing, activated their camouflage, making them practically invisible. They sprinted lightly to the mining facility. Once there, an elite named Kusovai pulled a beam rifle out from where it was strapped on his back. He zoomed in on the base through the scope, and what he saw surprised him. There were _jackals_ defending the facility. He could see six pairs of them, but he knew there would be more. In addition to the jackals, five brute shock troopers and a brute chieftain patrolled the entrance to the base. There were also four prowlers circling the facility, and six choppers on standby, their drivers next to them. There were also two plasma turret emplacements, armed by brutes.

"Commander, there are many defenders of this facility. More than we expected." Kusovai said.

"I need numbers." Thel said. Kusovai related what he had seen to Thel.

"We have our work cut out for us then." Rikar said.

"No. We'll go in quietly-sort of." Thel said. "Prime a plasma grenade."

A few seconds later, five plasma grenades detonated in the middle of the plains. Four choppers and three prowlers, along with the brute chieftain and three shock troopers went to check it out. The elites all pulled out their beam rifles and killed the remaining guards.

"Let's go!" Thel yelled. The strike team sprinted toward the base. When they arrived, Rikar used a fuel rod cannon to destroy the door. The team rushed in, energy swords activated. The room was clear. The team continued moving through the facility, slaughtering jackals and brutes along the way, but only when needed. Mostly, they just slipped past defenses, casually making their way to the facility's reactor center. Once they arrived, they set charges on the doors. The doors blew in, and alarms started going off. Disregarding the alarms, The elites ran in, and quickly killed a squad of brutes who had been defending the reactor. The brutes didn't even get a shot off. Thel and his team chucked plasma grenades at the reactor, but the grenades bounced off and were deactivated.

"It must have energy shields!" Thel shouted. "Use charges. Set the timer for 5 minutes. That should be enough."

Once the charges were secure, the strike team activated cloaking and sprinted into the hallway. Blocking the exit, however, was a massive brute chieftain flanked by twenty bulky brutes, all of them armed to the teeth with gravity hammers, spikers, brute shots, and spike grenades. The elites deactivated their cloaking.

"Come on. Let's go." Thel roared.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – Rescue

The corridor was filled with gunfire. While the Sangheili made efficient use of what cover there was, the Jiralhanae simply needed to fill the hall with spikes from their crude but deadly spike rifles. But Thel knew that they couldn't go at this forever. They had less than five minutes to butcher these primitive apes and get the hell out of this facility before the charges detonated. And, with the number of brutes standing at the end of the hallway, Thel knew that it would be next to impossible to escape alive. He flipped out from behind a large metal box that had been serving as cover and flung one of his energy swords at the brutes. The sword spun through the air, bathing the metal walls in an eerie blue light. Its journey ended abruptly in the chest of a brute clad in golden armor. That was when the ceiling ceased to exist. At first, Thel thought that it must have been weakened by a plasma or spike grenade, but neither of those would have destroyed the ceiling. On the bright side, however, the wreckage had incapacitated at least seven brutes, and ultimately distracted the others from Thel's team. What happened next was a surprise to everyone. A figure clad in olive green armor leapt through the hole, a UNSC fragmentation grenade in hand. The grenade flew through the air.

"Everyone, DOWN!" Thel yelled to his team. They all dropped instantly. The detonation took at least three more brutes to their deaths. The olive green figure had already engaged the brutes, wielding what looked like two UNSC SMG's, but with a longer barrel. Rikar was up, and leapt into the fray, firing on the brutes with his dual plasma rifles. Kusovai primed a plasma grenade, and chucked it at the remaining brutes, ending the lives of three more. And then Thel joined the fight, using his dual energy swords to battle four of the mongrels at once. From there, the battle ended swiftly. Thel checked the timer. It read 3:59.

"Perfect." He said, smiling.

"What?" The green figure asked, turning.

A look of surprise washed over Thel's face. "It can't be…"

"What can't be?"

"John?" Thel whispered.

The figure in olive green armor, whom Thel believed to be John, Spartan-117 took his helmet off. "No. But John was a close friend of mine. I'm Fred. But… may I ask how you knew him?"

"There's no time." Rikar said. "We have three and a half minutes until our plasma charges blow."

"Charges?" Fred asked, surprise washing over his face. He put his helmet back on, no doubt warning others in the area of the impending explosion. "Come with me." He said "There's a pelican waiting." He then activated a jet pack built into the back of his armor, and flew out through the hole in the ceiling. Shrugging, Thel leapt up after him.

"This is either the best or worst decision I'm ever going to make." Rikar said, following. The other three elites leapt up swiftly, closely following him. And, as the human had promised, a pelican was waiting for them. They leapt in to find Thel in deep conversation with Fred and two other humans. He looked up.

"Rikar, you must know who these people are." Thel said as the pelican lifted off.

"Indeed I do. They are brothers to the one we knew as demon, until we rejected the prophet's lies, and saw that they were, truly, our allies. But these are not the one we knew as demon.

"No, they are not. But they have come to aid us in this war." Thel replied. "It turns out that the brutes have attacked not only us, but the humans as well. And they have awakened something out of our worst nightmares."


	6. Chapter 6

Planet Sera, August 29th, 2570

The streets were empty. At least, as far as John Fenix could tell they were. You could never be completely sure on Sera these days. He moved away from the window, and sat, contemplating the events of the past two months. It had begun with the brute invasion of Sera.

The UNSC suspected it was because the brutes wished to conquer one or two more planets, as the attack had been isolated only to Sera. At first, UNSC forces had had no problem, with the help of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, or COG,'s soldiers, called Gears, in beating back the invasion. The brutes simply did not have enough artillery or ammunition to win the war. So, the brutes set up mining facilities in remote parts of Sera, and had begun digging for the metals that they used to build their primitive vehicles. When the UNSC heard word of these operations, they had sent in squads of ODST's to destroy the mining facilities. Slowly, but surely, the facilities had been destroyed. However, an ODST squad sent to destroy a facility on an island near the city of Jacinto had not reported back. Within the day, all contact had been lost with civilians of the island. Then, suddenly, nothing was heard from any of the invading brute forces either. And then, three days later, the brute transport ships had been seen flying into the atmosphere and docking with ships. The ships proceeded to go into slip space, and didn't return. Reports began to come in of brute attacks on worlds in the Sanghilian Empire and in the UNSC. A small task force had been sent to investigate the island. They had not returned. Then, the brutes burst out of their island stronghold with a renewed resolve. Three cities near Jacinto had been burned, and the citizens, marines, and Gears in those cities massacred. A new threat had quickly followed the renewed brute attack. The new threat was quickly coming to be known as the Locusts. Together with the brutes, they had cut a swath through the UNSC and COG forces. The Marines and Gears had been pulled back to defend the capital, Jacinto. Battles had raged throughout the streets for days on end, but the Locusts and brutes had eventually prevailed. Jacinto had been razed, and the Marines and Gears had scattered. However, the remaining forces were raising the armies once again to march on the brute and Locust threat. But in the smoldering ruins of Jacinto, it was simply a fight to survive. When the joint UNSC/COG force had been routed, John had taken a small group of Gears and Marines to the warehouse district, a place that had not gotten much attention from brutes or Locusts. They had been holed up in this warehouse for three days now, and their supplies were dwindling. The streets were deadly, but they'd have to try to get out of Jacinto.

"John!" A Gear named Preston Santiago yelled "Get over here!"

"Be down in a sec!" John yelled.

He ran for the stairs, and sprinted down them, two at a time.

"What's happened?" John asked. He saw his teammates, Preston and Cole, sitting opposite to each other around a table.

"Man you got to check this shit out, its firkin' crazy!" Anthony Cole, a fellow marine, said.

There was a holo-projector sitting on the table, with a message being played on a continuous loop. It was clear who the message was from, standing in front of the camera, as dignified as ever, was the chairman of the COG, Benjamin Stratton. Behind him stood the UNSC general sent to run the military operations, James Gray. The message was just ending, so it stopped for a three second break. And then it continued.

"_All members of the joint UNSC/COG force, you are ordered by UNSC command to stand down and end the fighting. This is a direct order to ALL UNSC Marines and Gears. Reinforcements will be arriving shortly. Failure to comply will result in court martial; Chairman Stratton, signing off."_

John reached forward and turned the protector off.

"Aren't they dead?" A marine, only known as Scar, said as he came out from the shadows from the corner of the room. The reason he was called, Scar, was the fact that his face was covered with them. None of them knew much about his mysterious past, nor did Scar ever talk about it.

"We thought so." John said quietly.

"Man, I ain't buying this bullshit." Cole said. "There's no way they could've got outta that command tower before it was blown to hell."

"I agree with Anthony." Preston said.

"Alright, so what are we going to do?" The fifth and final member of their group, Galen Fenix, asked. He sat at the corner of the couch, a grim look fixed on his face.

"I'm not-"A sudden explosion just outside the room that they were in cut John off mid-sentence.

"I have a sinking feeling that that was the goddamn door being blown off of its hinges!" Anthony yelled.

"Go for your weapons!" John shouted over another explosion.

All five members of the group sprinted to the office that was now serving as a weapons locker in the back of the warehouse. Scar, the first to get there, ripped the door open, and ran in. He grabbed the prototype for a new weapon, known as the Lancer, which he had taken from the weapons testing facility in the heart of Jacinto. He also grabbed a battle rifle, as well as three frag grenades. The other four grabbed an assortment of weapons, ranging from assault rifles to sniper rifles to rocket launchers. They ran out into the room, and took up positions to defend against the attack that they knew was coming.

After taking up positions, they heard sounds in the hallway. And then the sounds randomly stopped. And then all of a sudden, the left wall exploded, sending junks of debris and dust everywhere. As the dust cleared, the squad noticed that the explosion had created a giant hole in the wall. Several Locusts and ten heavily armed Brutes leapt into the room through the destroyed wall.

One of the locusts quickly lunged forward and tackled Scar. The next thing the marine knew he was pinned to the floor with the Locust on top of him. The Locust pulled out his pistol and aimed the barrel at Scar's chest. Scar managed to land a punch on the Locust's face before he could fire.

Scar attempted to struggle out of the Locust's grip. "Get the fuck off me!" he yelled through gritted teeth. He jammed his battle rifles barrel into the Locust's chest, and squeezed the trigger. Before he knew it, the Locust was dead as the bullets passed through his internals and came out the other end. Scar pushed the dead corpse off him and aimed his rifle up at the rest of the S..

Anthony chucked a frag into their midst, which managed to kill three of the brutes. The remaining seven fanned out and engaged the humans. The sudden crack of a sniper rifle was heard, and a suddenly one of the brute's heads was half gone, and a fountain of blood spewed out of its neck.

"Oh, fuck yeah!" Preston yelled, tossing a grenade down the remnants of the brute's neck. Afterwards, the Brute's body exploded, spraying blood and gore everywhere.

Meanwhile, Scar was cutting another Locust down to size with his lancer's bayonet under barrel attachment. He jammed the bayonet right into the Locust's chest; the force of the blow actually caused it to penetrate the Locust's skin. With a grin, Scar activated began cutting, and watched as it made short work of the Locust's organs. "Whoa!" he yelled with excitement. "Get some, baby, get some!" By the time he was done Scar's face was covered with Locust's blood.

The rest of the firefight was intense, but quick. The brutes were easily wiped out by assault rifle fire, and the Locusts were easily disposed of by Scar's knife and Preston's sniper. The Marines and Gears quickly policed the bodies of the brute's and Locust's for weapons and ammunition, but then they were out of the out of the warehouse as quickly as possible.

Shortly followed afterwards was an awkward silence among the Gears and Marines. "Looks like were done here," John said softly.

"You bet your ass we're done here pal!" piped up Scar as he kicked a Brute corpse.

"Dammit, how the fuck did they find us?" Galen asked.

"That goddamn signal must've been traced." John said. "This means that the chairman, as well as the general, is in the hands of the Locust's. I just hope that there actually are reinforcements on the way, or else we're all screwed."

"Screwed? More like fucked up the ass!" Anthony said


	7. Chapter 7

Aboard Sangheili Empire flagship _Honorable Sacrifice,_Orbit around planet Sera, August 30th, 2557

"Charge plasma batteries, fire on my mark!" Thel yelled

"Plasma batteries charged, waiting for firing solution…got it!" The weapons officer, a Sangheili named Karton said.

"Fire! Fire!" Thel screamed.

"All plasma batteries firing!" Karton exclaimed over the sounds of the deck.

Thel turned to the viewport, his cloak fluttering around him, to observe the battle taking place around the planet Sera. Blue fingers of plasma raced towards the Jiralhanae ships, and struck, splashing over their shields. The lines of the Jiralhanae fleet seemed untouched by the plasma blasts. But then, a second and third wave of plasma hit them from all sides, destroying their shields, and penetrating the hulls of the ships.

_Perfect timing_Thel thought.

The plan had been beautiful. Only a quarter of his fleet had come to Sera with him, with a small force of UNSC ships. After he had left with his task force, however, Rikar and Kusovai had each assembled their task forces. About an hour after Thel had left, they too had entered slipspace, headed towards Sera. They would assault the Jiralhanae ships from all sides, and tighten the ring that Thel's ships had set up. But even Thel had not thought it would turn out so well.

The shields of the Jiralhanae fleet collapsed. The ring formation of Sangheili ships was closing in around them. Thel imagined what the commanders aboard those ships would be thinking. He snickered, knowing exactly what the fools would do.

_No doubt they will try to break out of the noose that we have tightened around them. And then, they will die._ Thel knew this, especially after serving with the mongrels for such a long period of time.

Suddenly, a new fleet broke out of slipspace. Thel knew that these were Admiral Connor's ships, coming to finish tightening the noose. But the Jiralhanae – at first – may believe them to be reinforcements. Their hopes would be raised, and then utterly destroyed as Connor's mixed fleet tore into them.

As he watched, the new nimble UNSC light cruisers, nicknamed Raptors, swiftly moved in, their 200 ml chain guns blazing, stitching holes in the hulls of the Jiralhanae cruisers. Thel could also clearly see the smoky trails left by Hades laser guided ship-to-ship rockets.

The larger frigates seemed to take this as a cue to open up with their deadly MAC cannons. The hulls of most of the remaining Jiralhanae cruisers were opened up by the missiles, and began to vent bodies and atmosphere.

The black of space turned blue once again as the Sangheili ships surrounding the Jiralhanae cruisers opened fire, blowing any remaining Jiralhanae cruisers to hell, and finishing the work started by Thel.

_Another victory for the Empire,_Thel thought, a twisted grin taking over his face.

His silent contemplation was abruptly interrupted by his communications officer, a major named Malak.

"Emperor Vadam, Admirals Connor, Rikar, and Kusovai are attempting to contact you." Malak said.

"Patch them through at once." Thel ordered.

The holograms of Thel's admirals appeared on the holoprojector. Rikar and Kusovai both stood nine feet tall, which was over the average height even for a Sangheili. Both wore the ceremonial robes of admirals in the fleet of the great Empire of Sanghelios. Both dwarfed Admiral Connor, a six foot, aging human wearing the traditional white suite of admirals in the UNSC fleet.

"What are your tidings?" He asked.

"My lord, my portion of the fleet sustained no casualties in this battle." Rikar said.

"Nor mine." Kusovai said. "Except for one Phantom which had carried troops to board a Jiralhanae ship just before it was destroyed."

"I ordered the enemy ships not to be boarded." Thel said sternly.

"The commander of this boarding party disobeyed a direct order from me, and paid the price." Kusovai said. "It is a stain on his family's honor."

"No doubt." Thel said. "And you, Admiral Connor? What casualties did you sustain?"

"A single Longsword fighter escorting one of our light cruisers, _The_ _Manticore,_into battle was lost. That was all." He replied.

"This is excellent news." Thel said. "Connor, did any of your ships remain in-system during the invasion?"

"Yes, Emperor Vadam. Why?" He replied.

"Would they know how many Jiralhanae ships left the system before we arrived?"

"Yes." Connor replied. "As a matter of fact, they took it upon themselves to send the data to me as my fleet entered the system. From what my ships could trace, at least two hundred brute cruisers left the system, all carrying Locust forces."

"It is the Flood all over again, Emperor." Rikar said. "And like the Flood, it is merely an infestation to be cleansed, no more."

"That it may be. But they are infinitely more dangerous than the Flood ever were." Kusovai said.

"That is why we must land our troops as soon as possible. My legions are prepared. I want the rest of yours prepared for battle in two hours." Thel said.

"The battalions of the UNSC Marine Corps are ready, and the Spartans are itching for a fight. May I land my troops as a sort of preemptive strike?" asked Conner.

"Proceed with your landing, Admiral. Some of my men will be joining your battalions as well." Thel said.

"Thank you. I will began the landing immediately." Conner said, and his hologram disappeared.

"Rikar, Kusovai, you are both dismissed. Ready your legions." Thel said.

Both Sangheili bowed, and their holograms disappeared.

"Karton, I will be going planet side now. My phantom is prepared, I trust?" Thel said.

"It is my lord. May you find much glory in the battle to come." Karton replied.

"Thank you, Karton." Thel said.

Thel opened the doors that led into the corridors. Outside, his honor guard formed up around him, a group of twenty veteran Sangheili warriors. He would much rather have Rikar and Kusovai at his side, but his honor guard consisted of great warriors as well.

"If I may ask, where are we heading my Lord?" The commander of the guard, a seasoned Sangheili named Selros asked.

"The armory." Thel said.

The rest of the voyage to the armory was silent. Thel knew that he and his honor guard drew much attention from Sangheili warriors, and there was much staring. Thel had never wanted to rule, but the position had been forced upon him after the Covenant had been disbanded.

He was glad when they reached the armory. It was around weapons and in battle that he was in his element. He selected two energy swords form the racks of them on the walls, and strapped them to his belt. He also took two plasma rifles, strapping those to his waist as well. He grabbed four plasma grenades, and strapped them to his belt. He grabbed a carbine off the wall as well, and set it aside as he threw off his cloak and strapped on his golden armor, which had once been a mark of shame, but was now only worn by the highest ranking members of the empire. He attached the carbine to the back of his armor, and then exited the armory. He would be a fearsome sight on the field of battle, and his enemy's would come to fear him.

As he walked towards the phantom, he found himself longing to plunge his energy swords into Locusts. It had been far too long since he had done battle with an entirely new enemy.

Warehouse district, Jacinto, Sera, August 30th, 2557

The street was alive with gunfire. Locust Hammerbursts and brute spike rifles were pounding on the road blocks that five human soldiers were using as cover. The Locusts and brutes had the humans pinned down, with snipers on the roof, and dozens of infantry charging them from the front. And yet the humans were holding their own.

"Shit!" Anthony Cole yelled as a spike grenade detonated not three meters from his position. He barrel-rolled to the side, well out of the blast radius, and the spikes never touched him.

"Ah man, those damn brutes are gonna pay for that shit." He said as he burst up from behind cover and began savagely gunning down brutes as he came with his MA7B assault rifle. The streets were filled with the corpses of brutes and Locusts, and Anthony's savage and deadly use of his assault rifle was only adding to the hostile body count.

As Anthony blazed away with his assault rifle, Scar was charging the enemy lines head on. He raised the blade underneath his Lancer and brought it down on a Locust's head, splitting it clean in two. Blood and brains blasted onto his face, and yet he was grinning.

Not far behind him came Galen Fenix, his dual SMG's making short work of all who dared oppose his ruthless charge. His knife flashed, catching a Locust under the chin.

"Fool." He said, kicking the Locust's body out of his way.

Scar waved him over as he planted a grenade on the door to the single story restaurant that the Locusts were using as their command post. They each took up a place on opposite sides of the door as the grenade blew. They didn't even wait for the smoke to clear to charge in, guns blazing.

A brute that had been standing on sentry duty found a bullet in each of his eyes, as well as one in between them as well.

Scar smiled. "Gotta love the battle rifle." He said.

The pair continued through the building, easily disposing of the brutes standing between them and the Locust commanders.

Suddenly, they felt the wall of the room adjacent to theirs was blow in, and they hit the ground as the wall as the left wall exploded. Both leapt up and aimed their weapons in the direction of the explosion.

"Aww, fuck yeah!" Anthony said, entering the building, smoke still curling form his rocket launcher after his destruction of the walls.

He stepped into the light, and Scar and Galen saw that he was flanked by John and Preston. They lowered their weapons.

"I see you caught up with us." Galen said to his older brother John. "Now let's move."

Scar said nothing, but smiled, and then pivoted and began moving towards the manager's office, where they suspected the Locust commanders were hiding. Scar raced around a corner, and only barely managed to duck into time for the projectile from some sort of grenade launcher to fly over him. He got up, and brushed the dust off of him.

"You fuck with the dragon, you get the flames." He said calmly as he charged the massive Locust with the grenade launcher. He brought his lancer up and smashed the blade into the thing. Blood spurted out of the wound. Scar pulled it out, and then fired from the hip, pouring three dozen rounds from the lancer into the Locust. The thing collapsed, not quite dead. And then it tried to rise.

"Haha, stubborn little bastard, are you?" Scar said. "Well I can remedy that."

He kicked the grenade launcher away from the Locust, knelt down, and opened its mouth. He pulled a frag grenade form his belt and stuffed it into the Locust's mouth.

"Not so sure of yourself now, are we? When you get to hell, let the devil know Scar sent you. And tell him that many more will be following you." A smile appeared on Scar's face, and he barrel rolled back as the Locust exploded.

"Damn, that was one bigass Locust motherfucker." Anthony said. "Glad he's dead. Now let's kill the rest."

John kicked the door in, but the sight he found was not what he'd expected. The far wall was blown out. Three humans were in the process of finishing off the Locust commanders. Red blood was all over the wall, and it looked as if one or two of the bastards had been savaged by a chainsaw. All the humans wore the olive green armor of the UNSC marines.

"Who are you?" Preston asked.

"Sergeant Mary Stroud." The leader said, looking up from the Locust she had just pumped a whole clip of assault rifle ammo into.

"I'm Jace." The second member of the group said, strapping the chainsaw he was carrying to his back in favor of a Locust Hammerburst. "Sorry about Mary's coldness, she's just pissed off."

"She's always pissed…" The third member of the group muttered. "My name's Peter. And don't ask for a last name."

"I heard that." Mary said.

"Good." Peter replied.

"Well it's good to finally see some friendly faces. Were you at the battle of Jacinto?" John inquired.

"Yeah." Jace said. "Our battalion took a beating, so we fell back."

"Same happened to us." Preston said. "And we've been waiting for reinforcements."

"You haven't heard?" Peter asked. "There's a joint UNSC/Sangheili fleet in orbit. Reinforcements will most likely be arriving soon. There's no need to worry."

"That's great news." John said.

"Only if the reinforcements are good men." Scar said, polishing his knife on the body of a dead Locust.

"I like his attitude." Mary said.

"Well, isn't that nice." Scar muttered under his breath, sheathing his knife in its sheath on his shoulder.

"We'll need to rally with the new forces." Galen said.

"That we will." Scar agreed, standing. "We'd better start moving."

So the eight of them set out, looking for a likely place to rally with the reinforcements that they knew would soon be arriving.


End file.
